BENJAMIN CHURCH - THE FIRST "ARMY RANGER"
(c. 1639 - 1718) Founder of an armed force considered the forerunner of the U.S. Army's Rangers when he led the first ranger force in America, 1676. Church was commissioned by the Governor of the Plymouth Colony, Josiah Winslow to form the first ranger company for King Philip's War. He later employed the company to raid Acadia during King William's War and Queen Anne's War. Church designed his force primarily to emulate Indian patterns of war, and developed a special full-time unit mixing white colonists selected for frontier skills with friendly Indians to carry out offensive strikes against hostile Indians and French in terrain where normal militia units were ineffective. Excessively rare A.D.S. "Benja'n Church" as a justice of the peace, Little Compton, Rhode Island, Jan. 23, 1702, a sight bond relative to a case in which a woman is charged with "having a bastard child," boldly signed by Church at bottom. Heavily browned at left with chips causing the loss of a word or two and a few additional letters of text, but three-quartes of this document remains in very good condition. Matted with a reproduction engraving of the famous fighting woodsman and set into a wood frame.